Cymbopogon citratus, has been growing in this pot for about 7 years. It has been very easy to maintain and ensures that if a curry is to be made, the necessary herb abounds. In a month or so I will cut the leaves to their very base and then in spring it will flourish...
The Kalamata olives are ripe. We have a very small tree. It has been crowded greedily near Pandorea jasminoides 'Lady Di' and some Sedum flowers. And yet it is productive. I will harvest and bathe them until they are tasty.
Persicaria odorata is flowering. Small tiny flowers, barely discernible are opening. I really like the scent of these leaves, they are invigorating.
The backyard was pretty bare when we came to inspect the house. Grass and a few Camellias.....we planted Acacia mearnsii (Black Wattle) and other species which I need to go back and identify....thanks to this fast growing tree, which is now 11 years old, we have had a...
The Fava beans Artemisia and I planted four weeks ago have been lovingly blown into bendy poses. Here they are doing their poses. Still intact and really quite fine, it will be lovely to see them grow over time. Today they and all the broad beans were given a...
Finally my new chickens started laying three weeks ago! I had been truly missing having my own eggs....but just as soon as they did lay, I started to find broken eggs with the yolks completely gone....I suspected the Ravens or Crows that perch on the nearby telephone...
Flower focus. I started growing more flowers in the garden about four years ago. Here are some flowers from various summers.
From our local wholefood shop we have been purchasing 1kg bags of beans: fava and lima beans, as well as bags of peas and broad beans. Slowly we are making our way around the garden and planting them out. The aim is to enrich our soil and ensure better crop rotation....
At this time of the year, our Sedum flowers have died and the stems have been cut off to make way for the new plants to emerge. And here they are.
Here and there throughout the garden, my daughter and I are planting faba beans. We will let them grow till harvest and then dig the stems back into the soil to add organic matter to it.
I planted sage 10 years ago and it looked beautiful in it's second year. I pruned and pruned every year or two, but eventually it became woody and with less and less foliage. Last year I took 6 cuttings from the parent plant and re-potted them and this is the result....
The greenhouse, was added to the north facing facade of our home to bring warmth to the living areas, the study and front bedroom. It does this beautifully and has alleviated the need to have a heater in our bedroom and study and diminished heating needs in the living...
A brick fence/wall, especially a high one, can be great at helping you create a warm microclimate for subtropical plants and can wind protect them too. However in our case our low brick fence was reducing our productive space as it prevented sunlight from reaching the...
I hoped for a garden cupboard, I hoped to be able to walk up, see clearly what's on offer, grab and walk away, so I asked Ralf if he could build us a garden cupboard which could double as a chicken house. And this he did. On the right hand side is the chook house,...
When the desire to garden hits then I want nothing to stand in my way...except that if the soil is wet, then wait I must. Soil structure is diminished if you cultivate a soil when wet and if you stand on it to work it even a little then you will compact it and do a...
For the most part I keep the chickens in their run, it is large and comfortable and everything they need is there. I let them out in the garden only occasionally but need to do so more often. I have raised garden beds with a gravel topping (called Tuscan Topping). The...
I like to give myself and the garden a bit of a break in winter so I tend to grow a modest crop. Instead the focus for me is on replenishing the soil with nitrogen. For that reason peas and broadbeans are sown. Once these are harvested I will cut the haulm (stems) of...
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So we removed the concrete drive, placed two railway sleepers along the length instead. We wanted to be able to park the car in the drive way occasionally and the sleepers help to prevent soil compaction (we navigate our wheels along the sleepers). Over the years...